A RAVE FOR DAVE IN RED SQUARE

Dave Brubeck and his jazz quartet had a Soviet audience tapping toes and shouting “bravos” Thursday night at his Moscow debut in a concert hall just off Red Square.

It was the biggest event in years for fans of Soviet jazz, which is officially recognized but was often discouraged in the past.

Brubeck was the best known American performer to play Moscow since piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz returned to his homeland last April and drew rave reviews for concerts in Moscow and Leningrad.

Playing his original compositions and some jazz classics, Brubeck received what the Soviet press often calls stormy and prolonged applause.

“Wonderful--an amazing crowd,” Brubeck told reporters afterward. “I couldn’t ask for a better audience.”

His son, Christopher, who plays electric bass and bass trombone in the group, was even more enthusiastic about their reception by the audience of 2,500.

“The crowd was unbelievable,” he said. “It’s one of the best we’ve ever had in the world.”

Brubeck started with a piano solo, variations on the “St. Louis Blues” theme and drew the single hand-clap that is the signal of deep approval from Moscow audiences.

Doing a little dance on stage, he joined the clapping and led the group into “Unsquare Dance” in 7/4 time that delighted the audience even more.

Bouncing on both heels in time with the music, Brubeck also gave the spotlight to clarinetist Bill Smith and drummer Randy Jones for their own solo numbers.

Jazz buffs broke into applause after the first few bars of some numbers, such as “Take Five,” and they roared their delight when the group performed its version of “Take the A-Train” in a spirited encore.

Richard J. Combs, the acting head of the American Embassy, congratulated Brubeck backstage.

“It was just fantastic,” Combs said. “I think you turned this audience on. You’re a wonderful ambassador.”

Earlier, the Soviet master of ceremonies said that Moscow audiences had been deprived of the chance to hear other jazz greats, such as Oscar Peterson, without saying exactly why.

“Then reason triumphed,” he added, allowing Brubeck and his group to play with government blessing.

“We’ve been waiting for his visit for 30 years,” Alexey Batashev, a Soviet jazz historian, said before the concert. A tour by Brubeck in Poland in the late 1950s attracted wide attention here at the time.

“It doesn’t matter that he didn’t play here because jazz music spreads all over the world without personal appearances,” Batashev added. “Jazz after Brubeck became really an international art.”

The gray-haired Brubeck, 66, said in a chat with reporters before the concert that he would improvise his program according to the audience’s reaction.

“I expect to be surprised,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

In a mellow mood, Brubeck reminisced about his early days in music when he said he and clarinetist Bill Smith played dime-a-dance halls where they had to kick back part of their pay to the management.

When he began to play jazz, he said, the critics often walked out of the hall.

“They thought people wouldn’t dance to my music--they were wrong,” he said.

His 1959 album, “Time Out,” had music in then-unfamiliar 5/4 and 9/8 time, he said, and Columbia Records had doubts about whether to issue it. But it sold more than a million copies.

“There’s even tremendous interest now about what we did in the 1940s,” he said, in tones of disbelief.

Now a second generation of Brubecks is playing jazz. Four sons are musicians, but only Christopher, 34, was along on the Soviet tour.

Brubeck the father was asked what he would advise Soviet musicians. He paused for a moment and replied: “Always be true to yourself. If you have to play in a cellar alone, do it. Play what you feel.”

As is usual for appearances here by American artists, the first Brubeck performance was sold out within a few hours when tickets were put on sale March 16. Many members of the audience came by invitation from Goskoncert, the state agency for musical performers, or the U.S. Embassy.

“We did our best to get tickets to the real jazz fans,” one U.S. diplomat said.

Russell Gloyd, Brubeck’s manager, said the Soviet authorities at first wanted the group to appear in 10 outdoor concerts at huge sports stadiums. Brubeck, however, demurred because he wanted more intimate surroundings. In a compromise, 13 performances were scheduled in three cities, Moscow, Leningrad and Tallinn, from Thursday until April 11.

Arrangements to make a record and a television program during the tour are still being discussed with Soviet officials, Gloyd said.

The concerts were made possible by the signing of the Soviet-American cultural exchange agreement at the Geneva Summit in November, 1985.